Catcher In The Rye Persuasive Essay

The biggest battle humans will ever fight in life is with themselves. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a 17 year old boy named Holden finds himself within this battle to become something that he is not. He mentions throughout the novel about his hope to be a catcher in the rye. “In the passage that gives the book its title, Holden explains that he cannot imagine himself fitting into any of the roles that society expects him to perform, like growing up to be a lawyer or scientist. Instead, he can only imagine being a catcher in the rye who stands at the edge of a large rye field watching over and protecting little kids from danger” (The Catcher). This is a metaphor that shows how Holden wants to be a protector of the innocent that when these children fall from the cliff, he will be the one to “catch them”. In this novel, the idea of catching is portrayed through Holden as he is

During this scene, Holden had made a snowball and was trying to decide what he wanted to throw it at. “The snow was very good for packing. I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn't throw it at anything” (Salinger 47). When he decides that he won’t throw it because he doesn’t want to ruin the beauty of the snow it shows the idea of Holden being a catcher in the rye. Instead of throwing the snowball and ruining the pure look of the snow on the car and the fire hydrant, he decides to leave it alone, demonstrating how his restraint from intervening can in a way, be protecting the innocent. This is one of the major events in the novel that shows that Holden can be seen and thought of as a catcher in the